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Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: the Igbo case, 1900–19151

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

F. K. Ekechi
F. K. Ekechi
Affiliation:
Kent State University, Ohio
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Extract

A critical examination of the forces behind Igbo acceptance of Christianity during the first decade of this century reveals that British military imperialism and other forms of colonial exploitation were in fact basic to the decision of many Igbo communities to embrace Christianity. The adoption of the Christian religion, especially by the male adults, may be seen as a clear method of adjusting to the new colonial regime in which Christianity offered visible social advantages. Communities which embraced the new religion believed that by associating with the Christian missionaries, they would perhaps escape various forms of colonial over-rule.

The expansion of British political authority in the Igbo country, therefore, widened the frontiers of missionary enterprise. And as the Christian missions found the Igbos remarkably receptive to missionary propaganda, each was more than anxious to exert its denominational influence on the people. Thus interdenominational rivalry, especially between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants, was acute. For various reasons, the Roman Catholic missionaries seem to have established a more preponderating influence than the other Protestant societies.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 103 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

2 C.M.S.: C.A. 3/037, Taylor's Journal, entry for 25 June 1863. Out of a population estimated at 13,000 the number of active Christians at Onitsha in 1874 was 177. Cf. C.M.S. C.A. 3/04(a), ‘Statistics of the Niger Mission, 30 Sept. 1874.’

3 For some treatment of aspects of Igbo religion see: Arinze, Father Francis A., Sacrifice in Ibo Religion (Ibadan, 1969);Google ScholarBasden, G. T., Niger Ibos (New York, 1938), 33–97;Google ScholarCorreia, Father P. I. A., ‘L'animisme Ibo et les divinités de la Nigeria’, Anthropos, xvi–xvii (1921–1922), 360–6;Google ScholarCorreia, , ‘Vocables religieux et philosophiques des peuples Ibos’, in Bibliotheca Ethnologico-linguistica Africana, ii (1925), 104–19;Google ScholarIlogu, Edmund, ‘Christianity and Ibo Traditional Religion’, in International Review of Missions, liv (1965), 335–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Exceptions to these are some well-to-do people like Mr Okosi of Onitsha (1862) and Chief Idigo of Aguleri (1891) who joined the ranks of the Christians for other reasons.

5 C.M.S. Archives, G. 3/A3/0: Niger Mission, ‘Report of Stations in the Archdeaconry of the Upper Niger for the year ending December, 1881’.

6 Ibid. Dr Clayton to Baylis, 30 Nov. 1899.

7 ‘Sierra Leone and the Natives of West Africa,’ J. R. Afr. Soc. vi (1906–1907), 252.Google Scholar

8 See Ottenberg, Simon, ‘Ibo Receptivity to Change’, in Bascom, W. J. and Herskovits, M. J. (eds.), Continuity and Change in African Cultures (Chicago, 1958), 130–42.Google Scholar

9 Uchendu, Victor C., The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria (New York, 1965), 19.Google Scholar

10 C.O. 592/3, Report by Bedwell, H. (27 04 1906) in Annual Reports (1906), 219.Google Scholar

11 Cf. C.M.S., G3/A3/0 Elm to Baylis, 7 Dec. 1902.

12 C.M.S., G3/A3/0, Minutes of Executive Committee, 1 Sept. 1903.

13 Ibid.

14 Afigbo, A. E., ‘Revolution and Reaction in Eastern Nigeria, 1900–1929’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, iii (1966), 543.Google Scholar

15 See Okafor-Omali, Dilim, A Nigerian Villager in Two Worlds (London, 1965), 95–100.Google ScholarBulletin de la Congrégation (du Saint Esprit), xxi (1901–1902), 177, 517.Google Scholar

16 C.M.S., G3/A3/0, C. Brown's report of July 1912 in ‘District Reports’.

17 For commentaries on the disastrous effects of these two forms of punishment see C.O. 583/87, Minutes by Harding on Clifford to Milner, Conf. (A), 19 May 1920 and encl. On missionary intervention see C.M.S. Niger Mission, ‘Appendix to Minutes of Executive Committee, 15 July 1914. Report on the Western District.’ According to G. I. Jones, flogging, as a method of punishment, was totally alien to the Curtin, Igbos P. D. (ed.), Africa Remembered (Madison, 1965), 94, n. 34.Google Scholar

18 C.M.S., G3/A3/0, Minutes of Executive Committee, 1 Sept. 1903.

19 C.M.S. C.A. 3/030, Simon Perry's Journal Extract, entry for 2 Nov. 1878.

20 C.M.S., G3/A3/0, Niger Mission, Archdeacon Crowther to Baylis, 5 Oct. 1903; Bulletin, xx (1903–4), 509; Holy Ghost Fathers Archives (F.H.G.), Paris: 192/A/II, Lejeune to the Directors, 29 Oct. 1901. Writing with respect to the British expedition and its effects, Father Lejeune observed: ‘une Mission (catholique) s'imposera encore dana cet immense intérieur, une mission qui devra protection et refuge à tous les esclaves qui seront libérés après l'expédition.’

21 F.H.G. 191/B/IX, ‘Protestantisme obstacle à l'expansion du Catholicisme au Niger’ (n.d.).

22 Ibid. Methodist Archives, London (P.M.M.S.), Boocock to Slater, 23 Mar. 1903.

23 F.H.G., Paris, 191/B/II, Shanahan to the Directors, 3 Dec. 1905.

24 Bulletin, xxiv (1907–8), 143.

25 P.M.M.S. Archives, Guttery to Boocock, 21 May 1909.

26 Ibid. Guttery to Boocock, 27 Feb. 1909.

27 Ibid. Guttery to Boocock, 2 July 1909.

28 C.O. 520/49, P.M.M.S. to Fosbery (5 Sept. 1907), encl. in Thorburn to C.O., 10 Oct. 1907.

29 C.M.S. G3/A3/0, ‘Report of a Missionary Journey into Interior Iboland, 24 February–8 April 1903’.

30 See Chronique des Missions: Aperçu Historique et Exercise 1930–31, 147.

31 F.H.G., Paris, 192/A/II, Shanahan to the Directors, 7 Oct. 1907.

32 C.M.S. G3/A3/0, Minutes of Executive Committee, 23 Feb. 1903.

33 F.H.G., Paris, 192/A/II, Lejeune to the Directors, 20 Oct. 1904.

34 P.M.M.S. Archives, Banham to Horton, 23 June 1916.

35 C.M.S. G3/A3/0, Minutes of Executive Committee, 7 Feb. 1911.

36 See Ibid. Minutes of Missionary Conference, 7–9 Nov. 1911.

37 Ibid. Aitken to Manley, 28 May 1914.

38 Ibid. Johnson to Lang, 27 Sept. 1882.

39 Bulletin, xxvi (1911–12), 873.

40 F.H.G., Paris, 192/A/I, Budendorf to the Directors, Dec. 1893.

41 Ibid. Pawlas to the Superior, 20 Mar. 1899.

42 Bulletin, xxii (1903–4), 789.

43 Chronique des Missions, 138. Father John B. Jordan gives the number of schools in 1908 as 27 and the enrolment in Catholic schools as 2,793. See Bishop Shanahan of Southern Nigeria (Dublin, 1949), 45.Google Scholar

44 Bulletin, xv (1889–91), 544.

45 Shanahan to Mother-House, 21 Mar. 1906, in Ibid. xxiii (1905–6), 581.

46 Jordan, 90.See also F.H.G., Paris: 192/A/II, Shanahan to the Directors, 20 Oct. 1905.

47 Many chiefs, in particular, sent their sons to school precisely for this purpose. See C.O. 591/2, Government Gazette. Supplement (30 July 1904), 217.

48 Nigerian Advocate, 29 Aug. 1923, cited by Coleman, J. S., Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Los Angeles, 1958), 125.Google Scholar

49 Cf. C.O. 583/49, encl. in Boyle to C.O., Conf., 10 Nov. 1916.

50 In many cases the missionaries recognized that this demand for schools was far from being an ‘over-anxiety for Christianity’ per se, but rather that the desire sprang from other motives. See P.M.M.S. Archives, R. Carthorne's ‘Quarterly Returns of Bende and Ihube Stations’ (n.d.) probably written in 1974.

51 Kalu, Eke, ‘An Ibo Autobiography’, in Nigerian Field, vii (1938), 164–5.Google Scholar

52 An exception here is the Catholic Society of African Missions (Société des Missions Africaines) in Asaba, which claimed that the Catholic Church would be ‘committing a crime’ against African souls by introducing education. See Todd, J. M., African Mission: A Historical Study of the Society of African Missions (London, 1962), 121–2.Google Scholar

53 For a discussion on this see Afigbo, A. E., ‘The Background to the Southern Nigeria Education Code of 1903’, in JHSN, iv, no. 2 (1968), 197–225.Google Scholar

54 C.M.S. G3/A3/0, Minutes of Executive Committee, 18 Nov. 1901. Also see G3/A3/L5, Baylis to Alvarez, 7 Mar. 1902.

55 F.H.G., Paris, 192/A/II, Lejeune to the Directors, 20 Oct. 1904. Father Lejeune was of course referring to the Hope Waddell Institute at Calabar.

56 C.O. 520/8, Moor to C.O. no. 157, 12 June 1901.

57 C.M.S. G3/A3/0, Minutes of Executive Committee, 27 Feb. 1902.

58 Ibid. Minutes of Executive Committee, 12 Aug. 1902.

59 C.M.S. G3/A3/L5, Baylis to Alvarez, 7 Mar. 1902. In fact, the employment of African teachers was ordered to be stopped. According to Salisbury Square, English money was not to be used in paying the salaries of the teachers; those who were retained were to be supported by the Africans themselves. Ibid. Baylis to Alvarez, 28 Apr. 1902.

60 F.H.G., Paris, 191/V/Vi, Memo on education by Father Lena (n.d.).

61 Quoted in Jordan, 91.

62 C.M.S. G3/A3/0, G. T. Basden's Annual Letter, Nov. 1910.

63 Ibid. Basden to Baylis, 20 Jan. 1912.

64 Ibid. ‘Report of Central District, July-December 1912’ by S. R. Smith.

65 Ibid. Tugwell to Baylis, 3 Aug. 1912.

66 See Ajayi, J. F. Ade, Christian Missions in Nigeria, 1814–1891. The Making of a New Elite (Evanston, Ill., 1965), 138.Google Scholar

67 C.M.S. G3/A3/0, Dennis to Manley, 13 Sept. 1913.

68 Cf. Ibid. J. Cheetham's Annual Letter, 5 Dec. 1911; Ibid. Bennett to Baylis, 2 Aug. 1900; Morel papers, London, Dennett to Morel, 22 July 1912; C.O. 583/80 Clifford to Milner, 3 Dec. 1919.

69 C.M.S. G3/A3/0, Tugwell to Manley, 8 Aug. 1914.

70 Ibid. S. R. Smith, Annual Letter, 7 Dec. 1912.

71 Ibid. Dennis to Manley, 13 Sept. 1913.

72 This aspect of Catholic-Protestant rivalry is treated in some detail in my forthcoming book (to be published by Frank Cass and Company, London).